Poulakidas passes 1,000-point mark

On Monday Neuqua Valley's boys basketball team welcomed its fourth member of the program's 1,000-point club.

On the Wildcats' first possession of its game against Rockford Boylan at the Rockton Hononegah Martin Luther King Classic, junior John Poulakidas made a 12-foot jump shot for his 1,000th point.

A three-year varsity player, the 6-foot-5 guard scored 28 points in Neuqua's 76-56 win over Boylan to move to 1,026 points. He made 9 of 12 field-goal attempts, including three 3-pointers plus 7-of-7 foul shooting. Connor Davis scored 20 points with 7 rebounds and 4 steals.

Poulakidas, who began the season 12th in Neuqua scoring with 660 points, surged past Connor Raridon's 1,006 points to rank third among Neuqua Valley scorers. Keelan Amelianovich has the program record with 1,291 points, followed by Dwayne Evans with 1,162 points.

Poulakidas, who owns a reported 14 college scholarship offers, set himself up for the landmark by scoring 8 points in Neuqua's 43-37 win over Normal West earlier on Monday.

Neuqua Valley (16-5) opened the tournament Saturday with wins over Hononegah and Normal, Poulakidas scoring 36 in that second game.

It was the first time since 2010 that the Wildcats went 4-0 at the Hononegah MLK Classic, according to assistant coach Tyler Sutton, who played on that 2009-10 team.